LAHORE: Levis Strauss & Co, an American clothing company, on Saturday said that the ‘safety and security’ of consumers is their top priority, after a customer complained about a hidden camera in the fitting room of its outlet in Faisalabad.
Nauman Zafar, a resident of Faisalabad, on Wednesday filed a complaint with the police that his sister had found a camera hidden in a box in the fitting room of the Levi’s store located in People’s Colony.
“At Levi Strauss & Co., the safety and security of our consumers is a top priority. We were shocked to hear about the situation at our Levi’s Factory Outlet store in Faisalabad and are working with local authorities to investigate the matter,” reads the company’s press statement.
“The two individuals involved were employed by a third-party staffing agency and are not Levi Strauss & Co. employees. They no longer work at our store and have been terminated from the staffing agency,” the company stated, adding that company takes any breach of its policies very seriously and is working to determine how the incident happened.
“We will take further action as needed based on the results of the investigation,” it said.
Talking to a private news channel, the complainant Zafar claimed that the store’s manager insisted to his sister to try garments that she was not interested in buying.
“We did not like the variety available at the store but the manager insisted to my sister a couple of times to try other items of clothing,” stated Zafar, adding that he had asked his sister to be cautious while trying the clothes after he heard some whispers and footsteps around the fitting room.
“My sister saw two boxes in the trial room, a lens in one of which was visible,” Zafar said, adding that his sister immediately informed him about discovering the camera lens.
“I took pictures of the lens and then called the manager and questioned him,” he told the news channel, adding that the store’s manager pleaded him not to pursue the matter.
He further said that he also took pictures of the manager, himself, and the lens and then called the police helpline 15.
“The manager snatched my phone one or two seconds into the phone call to 15,” he said. “He deleted the pictures after snatching my phone and then another man went to the trial room and removed the camera.”
Zafar claimed that the manager then said that his allegations were false, manhandled him, and threatened to call the police.
“The situation got really rough and I was forced to apologise to the manager and leave the store. But I contacted the police immediately after leaving the premises,” he said.
The complainant said that the police took timely action and probed the matter by questioning the store’s staff.
The trial rooms, which were locked when the complainant had visited the store, were open after the police entered the premises. The boxes were also not present in the fitting rooms, said Zafar.
“The manager refused to accept anything and expressed oblivion about the incident,” he said. “The deleted data recovered from my phone had the evidence against the store’s staff and the police also got CCTV camera footage.”
